The Wrecking Ball Picture And Deere Sales Fall 30%.

Barron's had this picture as their cover page this week. It's the name "Trump" stamped on a wrecking ball. There is commotion all around it.

Tesla was down $42.98 or 10.1% on the week. On Friday morning it was up a touch in early trading and then tanked some more as the day progressed. The D.J.I.A was down over 300 points on the day.

Day traders in on the opening playing it going down could have made some serious money. Look at how low these Puts traded down to around 9:50 a.m..Yet then again, who would have the stomach to be buying "out-of-the-money" Puts with less than a day to go?

Now here is a look at how the 380 Puts traded on the day on Tesla. Going back once again to the 9:50.a.m. time period they would have being a much safer (yet potentally less rewarding experience than the 370 series) to play. Why safer? Well the stock in the early morning trading was around the $380.00 level not like the ten dollar "out-of-the-money" price range as in the above example.

Moving on, Caterpillar was down $7.56 on the week to $363.88. Here is it's 30 day chart. The gap to the downside last week happened because of an earning report release. It was not good as they were not operating anywhere close to full capacity. If that is the case wouldn't Deere now be in somewhat of the same boat? The decline in Caterpillars price this week just passed has more now to do with the tarriff scares.

. Ford had a bad week also with a scare of tariffs once again and a poor quarterly earning numbers. Here is it's five day chart.

Let's look at "the-bid and-ask" back on Wednesday at the close on the Ford 10 series of Puts which then had two days to go, just prior to their first quarter earnings report coming out. These Puts were expensive requiring a $.52 cent drop in the stock's price just to break even.

. Here is how this Put series closed out the day on Friday.

Deere has earnings coming out later this week and here is it's three month chart.

. According to Barrons it is estimated that just 6% of Deere's sales go to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in total and exports to China at about 1% in total. Deere comes out with an earning report at 9:00 a.m. this Thursday. Here is a look at two series of their Calls and Puts. They are both "out-of-the-money" and somewhat expensive. The volume of trading in these options is always notoriously low and it takes nerves of steel to play them. I would think more about the Puts than the Calls on these ones and I would wait until Wednesday to do something.

To be continued. Now look at Deere on Tuesday in the late morning.

Let's look at the 470 calls.

You can see why because of the it's five day chart.

Now where does that leave us with out 460 Puts?

They have lost an amount equal to what the 470 Calls have gained. So basically option players last Friday, knowing earnings were coming out this Thursday where betting on a two day Monday and Tuesday rally. Look now at it's 30 day chart.

No real news and just a regular day of trading. Options players with a desire to play the downside might now be tempted to use this time period as an entry point to buy into the $470.00 series of Puts.

Now a chart showing how Deere traded on Wednesday.

The 470 Calls were at $15.16 the last time we checked. Now they are at $13.76.

Here is what happened and look at our 470 Puts.

This is a readout at 10:12 a.m. Can you see the drop in price didn't move the needle on the Puts very much unless you sold out on the opening. A summary. Playing it for the upside until the day before it''s earning came out was the way to go followed by perhaps being in the Puts this morning after their earnings report came out. Deere is a tricky stock to play options on. Going forward it may drop more.

Sales down 30% and profits down 50% from a year ago. Tariffs are coming. Why on a Friday morning is it's stock price charging up? I think any of these three series of Puts are something at 10:34 a.m. to consider.